Unknown Mortal Orchestra's purge of emotion gives Sex & Food a raw and natural feeling. And though the album has a vast range of style, it’s all catered to what the band does best: attention-demanding guitar, enticing dance beats and multifaceted lyricism.

Disco psychedelia gurus Unknown Mortal Orchestra are back with their fourth album, Sex & Food. A blend between the upbeat sounds of Multi Love and the crushing riffs found on II, the band's latest pushes themes of exhaustion from society, heartbreak, and catharsis through reflection. Ruban Nielsen has perfected the art of making solemn subjects sound catchy and lightweight- as you dance through this album you’ll find yourself listening quite closely to Nielsen’s narrative that anchors the harmonious tunes you can’t get enough of.

‘Major League Chemicals’ breaks into the album with an irresistible groove ebbing between waves of Nielsen’s meticulous chord progressions and Kody Nielsen’s drums. Layered on top of soulful organ styles familiar to classic disco funk style, the lo-fi vocals provide the cherry on top to the psychedelic sound that UMO fans are so fond of. This song isn’t the first to allude to topics of drug usage; later on ‘Not In Love We’re Just High’ carries on the thought process of substances and their impact on close relationships.

UMO have mastered the sounds from their past albums into Sex & Food by combining absolutely foundational bass lines with visionary melodies on keys and guitar. Wrapped into completion by Kody Nielsen’s radical drum fills and production that is clean where it needs to be with a hint of lo-fi, UMO’s latest album delivers, and then some.

‘Ministry of Alienation’ provides a slow-paced, dreamy melody over winding electric sitar loops with an outro of surreal saxophone asserting tension that seamlessly contrasts the rest of the song. Leading into ‘Hunnybee’, easily a high point of Nielsen’s lush rhythms. His lyrics focus on the fascination of interacting with love interests through contemporary communication, “age of paranoia, don’t be such a modern stranger.” Aside from the captivating sound this song proposes something that most can relate to: dancing through repressed feelings.

The scorching guitar tone on ‘American Guilt’ is as striking as the sarcastic lyrics- Nielsen calls out the façade of fake empathy in a disaster-plagued society. It’s followed by ‘The Internet of Love (That Way)’ that has sounds that root back to UMO’s 2011 self-titled release, deconstructed guitar sequences topped by Nielsen’s soft falsetto.

Ruban’s purge of emotion gives Sex & Food a raw and natural feeling- nothing feels forced when you’re listening through the lens of Nielsen’s personal reflection. And though the album has a vast range of style, it’s all catered to what Unknown Mortal Orchestra do best: attention-demanding guitar, enticing dance beats and multifaceted lyricism.

“What if I like my new album so much I don't even want to share it with this undeserving world,” Nielsen said on Twitter last year. Thankful that he did share it with us, Sex & Food gives the audience a closer look at the chaos-wrapped disco frenzy inside Ruban’s mind.